Retrieving the list of App Activities and identifying the Launch Activity from an APK file

When you are defining an Android App on ACCELQ, you will need to input the name of the Launch Activity. You may get this information from your dev team member, or follow the steps here:

Android APK files contain all the resources and code necessary to run an Android app. This includes all the activities defined in the app. In order to retrieve the list of activities and identify the Launch Activity from an APK file, you will need to use a tool called AAPT (Android Asset Packaging Tool). AAPT is a command-line tool that is included with the Android SDK (Software Development Kit).

To retrieve the list of activities and identify the Launch Activity from an APK file, follow these steps:

Step 1: Install the Android SDK

If you have not already done so, download and install the Android SDK from the official Android developer website.

Step 2: Open a command prompt or terminal window

On Windows, click the Start button and type "cmd" into the search box. On Mac or Linux, open the terminal application.

Step 3: Navigate to the Android SDK directory

Change the directory to the root directory of your Android SDK installation. On Windows, this will typically be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk". On Mac or Linux, this will typically be "/Users/<your-username>/Library/Android/sdk".

Step 4: Navigate to the "build-tools" directory

The AAPT tool is located in the "build-tools" directory of the Android SDK. Navigate to this directory by running the following command:

cd build-tools

Step 5: Run the AAPT command to retrieve the list of activities

Run the following command to retrieve the list of activities defined in the APK file:

aapt dump xmltree <path-to-apk-file> AndroidManifest.xml

Replace "<path-to-apk-file>" with the path to the APK file you want to analyze. This command will output the entire contents of the AndroidManifest.xml file, including the list of activities.

Step 6: Identify the Launch Activity

The Launch Activity is the activity that is designated as the MAIN activity in the AndroidManifest.xml file. Look for the activity element that has the following attribute:

android.intent.action.MAIN

The Launch Activity will also have the following attribute:

android.intent.category.LAUNCHER

This attribute indicates that the activity should be displayed in the launcher as the entry point of the app. The name of the Launch Activity will be specified in the android:name attribute of the activity element.

That's it! By following these steps, you can retrieve the list of activities and identify the Launch Activity from an APK file. Note that some apps may use dynamic activity loading, which may make it more difficult to determine the full list of activities at runtime.